News

Film and Video Studies Senior Project Festival

On Friday December 11th from 12-2 in the GMU Johnson Center Cinema, four FAVS seniors will be presenting their final senior projects.  The students presenting (graduating in January 2010) are:

Ashley Carpenter (Documentary)
Alex Plank (Documentary)
Brian Platt (Dark Comedy)
Kern Wheeling (Drama)

Seniors pitch their work and show their final pieces. A reception follows. The event is open to the public.

GMU’s First Annual Student Film Festival
by Chantel L. Ashley

DC Film and Video and the Virginia Arts and Communication Association (VACAS) sponsored George Mason University's (GMU) first student film festival showcasing the filmmaking talents of students from surrounding Virginia colleges and universities.  This year’s festival included short form projects from GMU, Radford, and Regent Universities.

The festival was held over two days, October 23-24, 2009 and offered two $500 cash prizes for Best Documentary and Best Narrative. The projects were voted on via an online forum established by DC Film and Video registered users. The winners were announced Monday, November 2, 2009.  Joey Neigh, GMU Film and Video Studies senior, earned the prize for Best Documentary for his film "Unicycle Boy" and Christopher Cheng, GMU Film and Video Studies graduate, won Best Narrative for his film "Sonny Boy."

When asked about the experience of completing "Unicycle Boy" Director Neigh expressed he was just simply "having fun with a camera." He was honored by the award and added that this experience inspired him to continue making films and entering more contests. He currently has a number of projects in the works, including his senior project, which is another documentary.

Cheng was also excited and inspired to learn of his prize for "Sonny Boy" and was glad viewers understood what he was trying to convey. During filming, he worked at making the environment on set as comfortable as possible. He stressed a comradery on and off the set of the film which allowed the cast and crew to work more cohesively together. "I felt that the closer the actors were as friends, the easier it would translate on screen," explains Cheng.  He is currently writing a full length narrative feature.

Cuong LeNguyen, GMU alum and Founder of DC Film and Video was impressed with the quality of the projects included in the festival and hopes to see the GMU student film festival grow to include work from more schools in the metropolitan area. LeNguyen believes that “DC needs a large Film Festival to unite all of the art and film patrons in the region.” Perhaps this festival will serve to help unite the DC area film community. “I think the film students in this area want something to get excited about,” he stated.

‘Studio A’ Announces Guests for Fall Series
September 29, 2009

Read more by clicking here or go to:
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/14691

Studio 'A' Announces Guest
February 5, 2009

Read more by clicking here or go to:
http://eagle.gmu.edu/gazette/articles/13140

Actor Michael Gabel is gues on Studio A
October 1, 2008

Read more by clicking here or go to:
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/12582/

Senior Video Projects
May 13, 2008

Read more by clicking here or go to:
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/11976/

Film and Video Studies Students to Present Projects
May 7, 2008

Read more by clicking here or go to:
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/11951/

Award-Winning "Studio A" Introduces Students to Film and Video Professionals
Feb. 19, 2008

Read more by clicking here or go to:http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/11533/

Student Commercials Aired on Cox
Oct. 19, 2007

Read more by clicking here or go to: http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/10979/

Alumna Selected as National Geographic Emerging Explorer

Read more by clicking here or go to: http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/9686

New Program Gives Film Majors a Leg Up in a Competitive Industry

Read more by clicking here or go to: http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/9854

Filmmaker Carma Hinton Appointed Robinson Professor
November 28, 2005

The Office of the Provost has announced that award-winning documentary filmmaker Carma Hinton will join George Mason University in fall 2006 as a Clarence J. Robinson Professor.

Born in Beijing where she lived until she was 21, Hinton has directed more than 13 documentary films about China, including "The Gate of Heavenly Peace" and "Morning Sun."

A scholar as well as a filmmaker, she has a PhD in art history from Harvard University and has held teaching positions at Swarthmore College, Wellesley College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, she has lectured widely on Chinese culture, history and film at educational institutions in the United States and around the world.

Her films have been shown in numerous film festivals worldwide and at the Film Forum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., among others, and broadcast on television stations around the world, including PBS, the BBC and ARTE.

Awards she has received include two George Foster Peabody Awards, the American Historical Association's John E. O'Connor Film Award, the International Critics Prize and the Best Social and Political Documentary at the Banff Television Festival, as well as nominations for Best Documentary Feature by the National Film Board of Canada, the ABCNEWS VideoSource and Pare Lorentz Awards by the International Documentary Association, and a National News and Documentary Emmy Award.

Since 1984, a large bequest from the late Clarence J. Robinson has allowed George Mason to appoint to the faculty distinguished professors in the liberal arts and sciences. Clarence J. Robinson Professors are outstanding scholars who are dedicated to undergraduate teaching and whose teaching and scholarship concern broad and fundamental intellectual issues.

Hinton will have a joint appointment with the College of Visual and Performing Arts and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences.